Frank Brangwyn. By W. Shaw-Sparrow. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.
10s. 6d. net.)—The painter has found a most determined champion in his biographer. No critic may suggest a fault, even in a newspaper article, without Mr. Shaw-Sparrow confuting him exhaustively. But in spite of this extreme devotion, and a tendency to call Mr. Brangwyn's art " virile " on every page, the book is an interesting one, although there are some lapses into the ghastly jargon of a certain kind of writer on art who will use the scraps that fall from the musical critic's table. What could be a worse abuse of words than to talk as Mr. Shaw-Sparrow does of our being able to follow in a certain picture "the orchestration of weight-values " ? Even if we cannot admire the art of Mr. Brangwyn quite unreservedly, we must nevertheless admit his enormous facility, his power of invention, and command of rich decorative colour. His pictures are always extraordinarily effec- tive, though perhaps with a little of the effectiveness of the successful stage-manager. Nevertheless, we are thankful for the free atmosphere and full current of life in the pictures, notwithstanding their turgid expression.
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